During remarks on the Senate floor Thursday, Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-LA) spoke about the National Flood Insurance Program.
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00:00I recognize a senator from Louisiana.
00:05Mr. President, I know you have a family legacy in Florida.
00:14You'll appreciate that along the Gulf Coast, and certainly in Louisiana,
00:18people in Louisiana are preparing for hurricanes.
00:21I just had a meeting with the Calcasieu Parish police jury,
00:25and they sent me some photos of some Lake Charles homes.
00:28And I'm saying this in the context of a discussion about flood insurance
00:32and what has happened that just seems irrational.
00:35Now, to reduce their risk of flooding and, therefore, their monthly flood insurance premiums,
00:40people have paid to elevate their homes.
00:43It makes sense. If you get floodwaters, it works.
00:47And it costs anywhere from $25,000 and $40,000.
00:51And if your foundation needs repair, there's another $25,000 on top of that.
00:57And if you have to fully replace your foundation, that can be another $100,000.
01:02But if it lowers your flood insurance premiums, it could be a worthwhile investment.
01:07You lift your homes, and you may not flood.
01:11Here is this home, a similar home.
01:15And you can see, whereas the neighbors are flooding, in this one, an elevation like this prevents a flood in this picture.
01:24That home's not flooding. Their insurance premiums should go down.
01:28But after spending tens of thousands of dollars to mitigate one's risk of flooding, they're still seeing high insurance premiums.
01:39They're getting the worst of both worlds.
01:41They had to pay to elevate their home, successfully preventing flooding.
01:45Despite that, they're having to pay much higher insurance premiums.
01:49Let's put up the chart of prices.
01:54Two properties.
01:56This is before they elevated their home, after they elevated their home.
02:00And at first it worked.
02:01They go from $12,000 a year to $758,000, from $4,500 down to $751,000.
02:08This is an investment which would lower the cost of flood insurance, saving the National Flood Insurance Program money, and therefore, it is worthwhile to raise your home.
02:21Now, however, under a new system called Risk Rating 2.0, it doesn't matter.
02:28Here, they pay tens of thousands of dollars to elevate their home, and under this new system, their premium is back up to $9,800.
02:37Or to $7,300.
02:40In this case, higher than it was before they elevated their home.
02:45The percent increase, about 1,200%.
02:48The percent increase here, almost 900%.
02:51Does not make sense.
02:54By the way, why would you pay to elevate your home if you get the double whammy of paying to elevate,
03:02and then your premiums, in some cases, are higher than when they started.
03:07Now, these are just two examples.
03:10People who did everything right, did what they're supposed to.
03:13They're not going to flood.
03:15And yet, after Risk Rating 2.0, this is what happened.
03:19I don't know if people still say ripped off, but they feel ripped off.
03:24They feel as if they did what was right, and they've been punished and penalized because their premiums almost, or in some cases, more than doubled relative to what happens.
03:35Now, these are nice homes, but they're not castles.
03:40These are middle-income families.
03:42And, you know, neighbors driving a pickup truck.
03:45And it looks a little bit, you're a car dealer, Mr. President.
03:48That doesn't look like it's a 2025.
03:51It's a good truck.
03:52It's a good family.
03:53These are not wealthy families.
03:55They are good, middle-income families, spending tens of thousands of dollars to elevate their home.
04:02And yet, still, their premium continues to rise.
04:07So, with Risk Rating 2.0 driving up costs for lower and middle-income families, about a fifth of those enrolled in the National Flood Insurance Program will be forced to drop their coverage over the next 10 years.
04:24Okay?
04:25You raise premiums, and you raise them to a degree that 20% of the people, typically the lowest risk, drop their coverage.
04:34Then, the flood insurance program has to spread its risk over a smaller base, which means it elevates the premiums even more.
04:43And so those who need it least are the next 20% to drop off.
04:48And this initiates what is called an actuarial death spiral.
04:52Risk rating 2.0 is like termites eating away at the foundation of a house, and if we do nothing, the home is going to collapse.
05:01I introduced legislation in February to give low- and middle-income households enrolled in the National Flood Insurance Program a 33% reduction in their premium in the form of a refundable tax credit that will go straight to their premium payment at the time it is due.
05:20Now, hurricane season won't wait on those who need flood insurance.
05:25Americans in my state and across the country need relief now.
05:29If we really want to put Americans first, we can start by making the National Flood Insurance Program affordable now and keeping it affordable 10 to 15 years from now.
05:39It is a pocketbook issue.
05:42But when you flood, like folks in Louisiana and other states have, it becomes a personal issue.
05:50Since the start of 2025, at least 21 Americans across eight states have died as a result of flooding and storms hitting their communities.
05:59Millions have been left without power or evacuated from their homes.
06:03And when you hear flood insurance, hey, I don't live in a coastal state.
06:07I don't live in Florida or Louisiana.
06:09Why does it bother me?
06:11My home will not get destroyed.
06:14I wish that were true.
06:17This isn't a one state problem.
06:20It is a one nation problem.
06:23All 50 states have National Flood Insurance Program policyholders.
06:30The darker the color, the more likely the flooding.
06:33Missouri is in dark color.
06:35New York State, minimal coastline in dark color.
06:39Pennsylvania, dark color.
06:42This is called riverine flooding, where you have a river and it comes down like this.
06:47And you can get the river, people building in the valley get flooded because the river overflows its banks and it fills up that V-shaped valley.
06:57And so that's why you would see flooding.
06:59You hear in the darker, not as dark, but still dark, you have the Dakotas also having problems with flooding.
07:08So it is a 50 state problem.
07:12And in these states there are those who don't have flood insurance and the time will come when they wish that they did.
07:21The National Flood Insurance Program can provide certainty for individuals and for their family.
07:27And maybe you won't see flooding as extreme as losing a home.
07:31I sure hope you don't.
07:33But I'm not just talking about the worst case scenario.
07:36Let's imagine going back to this picture.
07:39The family didn't get their home completely flooded.
07:43The family got four inches of water in their living room.
07:48Their carpets are destroyed.
07:50If their floor is anything but concrete, it is destroyed.
07:54If you have furniture in there that's cloth, it's destroyed.
07:58If you get mold, then you're going to have to rip out the sheetrock and replace wherever you had sheetrock.
08:04Two to three inches destroys the carpet.
08:07In fact, the most expensive three inches in a flood are the first three inches.
08:15And that's what makes flooding so difficult for a middle-income family to recover from.
08:26And for many, the National Flood Insurance Program is the only option they have.
08:31Now, by the way, the program designed to help them is failing them.
08:35And when millions of Americans are being impacted, Washington should act.
08:41And let me be clear.
08:42The National Flood Insurance Program is a federal program.
08:46Meaning that Congress and the President can change and improve it.
08:50We just need to have the will.
08:52So I urge my colleagues to join me in working with the Trump administration to end risk rating 2.0.
08:58In 2019, my office worked with the Trump administration to successfully delay risk rating 2.0 because of the lack of transparency as to how FEMA was calculating the rates.
09:11President Trump understood then and understands now that Americans are tired of being ripped off.
09:18When rivers swell, when coastlines have rising water, Americans should not have to fear the cost of rebuilding without affordable insurance.
09:29So let's make the National Flood Insurance Program affordable, accountable, and sustainable.
09:36Severe weather is relentless.
09:38We must be, too.
09:39And with that, I yield.
09:45And I note the absence of a quorum.
09:47The Clerk will call the roll.
09:49The Clerk will call the roll.
09:50Ms. Officer Brooks.
09:51The Clerk will call the roll.
09:52Ms. Officer Brooks.